Human Variation & Race

1.    The following environmental stress that disturbs homeostasis that I have chosen is Heat.  When temperatures reach to high for us humans to deal with, it can damage the outside layer of our skin by means of burning, and also damage the inside pigments and cells as well it can also damage our organs when our body temperature gets to high.  Our body also raises temperature to try and fight off infections as well.  The normal body temperature of a human falls around 98.6 degrees F and when it rises well above that our body kicks in to nature deviation gear. When humans perspire the heat will generally absorb that too quickly depleting the skin of natural salts and waters necessary for survival. 

2.    Four ways in which humans have adapted to this stress is by:

 a) Sweating, the short term adaptation.   When we perspire it is the bodies natural way of trying to cool off our body during overheating in a warm environment or during extensive exercise.  

b) A facultative adaptation to heat would be vasodilation, which is when the blood vessels in the body widen in turn allowing heat to pass through the body more quickly.  It helps a lot during exercise too when more blood is flowing through the heart at a faster rate and we sweat more.

c) An example of a developmental adaptation could possible be the size of the person and how their body structure is.  People who are a lot larger tend to sweat more and have larger areas of skin that can be exposed to sunlight. Where as a much smaller and slimmer person would have less cells o be damaged.

d)   An example of a cultural adaptation would be the kinds of clothing we have made to wear in different climates.  Specifically in hotter temperatures we have developed sandals for our feet, tank tops for our upper bodies and shorts for our lower body.  Also hair ties help a lot with women and their hair allowing coolness to hit their necks.

3.     The benefits to studying human variation is always beneficial so we know how to dress on hot summer days, we can wear skin sunscreen to help our skin from burning. We've also discovered remedies such as aloe vera that helps keep the skin cool or help with burns.  Anything from hand held fans, to spray water bottles, to knowing when we are thirsty and need to replenish ourselves with water to stay hydrated. 

4.     From what I have gathered in the reading materials, race would give us no insight at all in to helping us understand the variations in adaptation. Naturally places like Arizona and Las Vegas have an environmentally difference in what the do to keep cool as opposed to say people in Greenland.  Depending on whether or not you live in a colder or warmer climate is perhaps the greatest factor in studying environmental adaptation.  When we exercise we know we have to drink lots of water, when we're out at lake or parks in the sun all day we know we have to dress cool and drink fluids and when we sleep at night it's nice to have air conditioning available so we don't wake up in a pool of sweat.